Dirac is an advanced royalty-free video compression format designed for a wide range of uses, from delivering low-resolution web content to broadcasting HD and beyond, to near-lossless studio editing. The v1.0.0 version was released yesterday, and the new VLC version supports playback of .ts/.drc Dirac files.

My Take: Unfortunately, to encode Dirac videos is complicated, as it requires patching of specific versions of FFmpeg, while its Windows splitter files don't work without additional compilation. To top all this, the sample files on their sourceforge site don't work with VLC so I have no way to test this codec. As a videographer and as someone deep in all things video-editing, I personally find this whole experience very negative. Why can't BBC provide us with a simple DLL decoder installer, sample .drc/.ts videos (instead of RGB) that actually work with VLC, a command line or a VfW encoder, or at least ask FFmpeg to include their patches by default since all these years that patches were available? I was waiting for this OSS codec very eagerly after the Theora fiasco, so I am disappointed by the user experience I got today out of it. For me, claiming that something is version 1.0.0 has a specific meaning -- and in this case it's more than just a specification. Update: Video files that work here.